Have time on your hands at the moment?
Thinking about starting to create content for your audience?
More than ever 3 key things are happening:
- People have more time to think & create (as we are stuck at home)
- Social media use is up a ridiculous amount as people try and escape reality
- Your audience is in reset and are looking for solutions
For the next few months while this is all happening you have a unique opportunity. An opportunity to get closer with your customers, followers and new audience members.
But how do you do that?
Though video.
People love video, they consume it, share it and connect with it. It’s the main way most of us connect at the moment. But what I am seeing is the same people creating video content and it working. But the people who could be using it are struggling.
Many people struggle with one of the following:
- Do I look good enough?
- How do I structure a video so I don’t look like an idiot!
- Is this professional enough & if not will it hurt my brand?
Lets tackle these 3:
1. Do I look good enough?
This is a challenge as old as time. Many people hate having a photo taken. Think they look weird on Camera and it is the first road block to just getting things done.
But everyone feels this way about themselves, and less about other people.
I’m not saying don’t have a shave & wear clothes (please wear clothes).
But people do not judge your appearance as much as you judge your own. Just being seen will get you front of mind and that is currency in this economy.
2. How do I structure a video so I don’t look like an idiot!
If you have passed the first hurdle. The next is what do I talk about and how do I structure it. In future posts I will go into how to create value pillars but to start you off and get your first video done.
The simplest way is to build a little framework. The one I use is:
Question
Story/Solution
Call To Action
Question – Find a question that is really relevant to your audience. If you are in insurance maybe it is – How does Covid-19 effect your life insurance?, if you are an accountant maybe it is How can I get the government subsidy to help my employees?
What you are looking for is a hook. A hook to get someone to watch the video. It becomes your title and set’s up your time to shine.
Story/Solution – Now you have the setup it’s about sharing your unique perspective. You can put the answer in the form of a story e.g. Jane came to me with that exact question, she has 4 employees and…… (as an example to the accounting question).
You can put your flavour in this part. Don’t make it too long winded but keep it tight. You just want to share some value and show you are an expert.
You can also use the ‘Politician Solution’ where your answer may actually be a bit different to the question. For example with the insurance question above you could move to talking more about how to know if you have enough insurance at the moment. Create the answer people actually need at this time.
Call To Action – Remember to tell people the next step. As an accountant that may be to book a free consultation, as an insurance adviser ask for a quote. But don’t leave them hanging.
If you want a softer call to action maybe refer them to a more in depth blog post that you have written. But make sure you tell people what to do next.
It’s like if someone said ‘I am hungry – can you help?’ and then you showing them the best way to get food, but not telling them where to get it from!
3. Is this professional enough & if not will it hurt my brand?
It is important in my opinion to make sure your video is well branded. With your logo, slides going in and out, the right editing. You can also consider how to turn your content into things like blog posts, podcasts and more. Imagine creating content once but it being used it a bunch of different locations.
We help companies leverage content here.
